Webs and Wings
by Brown-Eyed-Fiend
Summary: Peter Parker was an ordinary boy till his life went down the drain. After spending a year on the streets he meets the Batman and his life takes a twist, for the better or the worst. Watch as these two work through their partnership in fighting crime and saving Gotham. No slash.
1. Partnership Born

Gotham despite all it's street lights still managed to be a rather dark city. Though standing at the top of a building stood a man that saw through all the darkness. Batman watched over his city as he did every night but this night was a defining one. Had he decided to instead be Bruce Wayne this night he may have been a very different man. But he wasn't and he would meet a boy this night that would alter his life, for better or worse.

In a dark ally way a gang of five chased a boy into a dead end. The boy was about sixteen, clothed in the rattiest cloths you could imagine and his hair went below his shoulders in a tattered and greasy way.

"We got you now you little shit!" One of the gang members yelled in victory at the teen.

"Really boys isn't this a little much over a little misunderstanding?" The teen asked with a hint of mocking in his voice.

"You blew up our cars you shit!" Another yelled.

"Oh! Yeah, I did that! No misunderstanding about that!" The boy said with a wide grin on his face.

"Yeah well guess what!" The first thug yelled again. "We got you trapped you little bitch!" The Batman was about to make his move until he saw the smile spread wide across the boys face. The boy then leapt into the air at a hight that no human could possibly match and landed on the other side of the thugs trapping them in the ally.

"Don't be so sure about that." The boy said. The next few moments were a blur to the thugs as the boy dashed at them. The first two went down down quick enough with a blow to the stomach and a blow to the face. He then went to tackle the third and slammed him into the nearest wall. He wasn't done with the thug just yet, he grabbed the man by the belt and though him at another nocking them both to the ground. He was about to finish off the last but only found a gun pointed at his head.

"Eat lead you-!" The gunman was cut short as a dark gloved hand crashed into his jaw, knocking him out. The boy took a long moment to look at the tall figure in the black suit and cape.

"Well... This is strange." The boy stated dumbly.

"Who are you?" The figure asked.

"Better question. Who are you?" The boy countered. The boy took another moment to examine the figure before his eyes widened. "Wait! Are you...? Batman!?"

"Who are you?!"

"Whoa! You are aren't you!? I thought you were just a myth!" There was a long silence before Batman turned and walked down the ally way.

"Follow."

"What? Why?" The boy asked but followed none the less.

"Get in the car."

"What ca-" The boy stopped as he saw the Batmobile. "Ok now that is a car." They both climbed into the car and sped off. "So... Got any good tunes? Any James Brown? No? Yeah I didn't think so..."

"Your not very smart are you." The Batman spoke after a long while.

"And you have a weird fission spence, what's your point?" The boy returned with an edge tone.

"You get into a car with a stranger not knowing what they want. For all you know I could be about to kill you."

"A killer that saves people? Weird method of murder wouldn't you say?"

"It is still an unnecessary risk."

"No risk." The boy spoke bluntly. "I can tell."

"How?"

"You tell me where you got this car and I'll tell you how I know your not a danger to me." The boy's offer was met by a long silence. "You are no fun."

"Look at this." Batman said as he held something close to the boys face. As soon as the boy turned a small amount of gas went into his face effectively knocking him out. Batman hen drove to the bat cave in blissful silence.

* * *

Alfred had grown to expect the unexpected in the two years that his master had become the batman, but he had never been expecting a young teen to be brought back to the cave.

"A friend of yours master Bruce?" Alfred asked as Batman carried the teen in his arms and over to a table.

"I found him on my patrol fighting a gang of of men."

"Most admirable for such a young man but..."

"He jumped nearly twenty feet into the air without even trying." Alfred paused and pointed at the young man.

"Him?"

"Yes."

"Well that is... Peculiar." Batman took a small needle and took a sample of the boys blood.

"I'm going to run this though the Batcomputer and see if it can find a match. Feed him something when he wakes up. I don't think he has eaten in a while."

"Are you sure that is wise sir?"

"He isn't dangerous. And as long as he says down here he won't find any hints towards my identity."

"Very good sir. I will be back soon with some food." With that Alfred turned and walked away.

* * *

The boy woke quickly when he smelt the food. He took a minute to examine his surroundings. He appeared to be in some sort of cave filled with weird bits of tech, some he recognised as a computer, the car he came in, a weird looking single person jet, a motorbike and a boat-submarine-thingy. This must be the Batman's layer, cool. But far more importantly, food! He watched as a man in his early to mid sixties walked up to him with a tray with food on it. There was garlic bread, pasta, soup and a tall glass of water.

"Thought you might be hungry." The man spoke in a British accent. He put the tray next to the boy on the table. It didn't take a second before the boy was on it. Alfred had seen hyenas eat and it suddenly appeared to be an elegant process. When the boy had finished he gulped down the water and let out a heavy sigh. "You appear to have needed that."

"You have no idea." The boy laughed. The sound of the boys laughter spread a warmth through the older man in a way that hadn't happened since he had heard his master laugh in his days of innocence.

"Might I ask your name?" The boy hesitated.

"Peter... Peter Parker."

"Alfred Pennyworth." Alfred said holding out his hand for the boy to shake. The boy accepted the gesture quickly.

"Nice to meet you and thanks for the food."

"Your most welcome. But might I ask..."

"Hm?"

"How did you come to be fighting crooks in alleyways." Peter scratched the back of his head.

"I kind of blew up their cars." Alfred looked a little taken back.

"And why would you do this?"

"Their cars were full of drug, drugs are bad, so by the powers of deduction, cars bad, cars go boom good." Peter smiled at Alfred.

"And how, pray tell, did you make the cars go 'boom'?" Peter shrugged.

"Their engines were simple enough so it was just a matter of moving stuff around."

"Your experienced with engines?" Peter shrugged again.

"Not particularly but the science is simple enough. Hey, can I ask you something?"

"What is it?" Peter looked him straight in the eye.

"You got anymore food?"

* * *

Batman sat in his lab, a separate part of the Batcave in which he could do deeper scientific studying. In this particular case the study was going poorly, the DNA came up with no matches, except from one strange match with spider DNA.

"Peter Parker." Bruce turned with his cowl down to look at his oldest friend.

"What?"

"The boys name. It's Peter Parker." Bruce ran it through the data base and a match came up.

"How did you get him to tell you?"

"I asked nicely. Not all answers must be found through intimidation you know." Bruce ignored the last part as he read over the file. "What does it say?"

"The important parts: Science prodigy, parents disappeared at age five, his uncle was shot and bleed out in his arms at age fifteen, he dropped out of school to work, his aunt died soon after of a heart attack, then he disappeared, considered dead."

"My word..." Was all that Alfred could muster. The boy seemed so... Warm. How could he have been though so much and still have a smile. Bruce reclined in his chair and felt a mixture of things towards Peter, mostly 'respect'. Bruce pulled his cowl back over his face and made his way back to the boy in question.

"Why did you bring him here master Bruce?" Alfred asked suddenly. Bruce stopped.

"At first, to simply find out the cause of his powers."

"And now?"

"... He's like me Alfred."

"What do you mean sir?" Batman turned to him.

"He fights for the same reason I do. To protect people so that they do not have to suffer the same way he has suffered. I think now he deserves to know just how to do that, don't you?"

* * *

Peter sat on the table he had woken up on patiently waiting. In all honesty he wasn't to sure what he had been expecting. He went with the Batman because he believe he might be able to meet others like him, and he had hadn't he? He met Batman, that was something. But all this waiting made him nervous but he took comfort in the fact that his spider-sense didn't go off so he was in no danger, right? Peter heard foot steps and looked up to see the Batman walking towards him. He used humour to hide his fear but this guy was pretty intimidating, but still no spider-sense.

"Peter Parker." Batman spoke. Peter felt a moment of surprise hearing his name come from the caped crusader.

_How does he know my- Oh yeah Alfred. Duh!_ Peter smiled to hide his nervousness. He got the feeling that Batman saw through it. "Yes?"

"I know who you are, and I know your history or at least everything on record." Peter was taken back, there was no doubt in the mans tone. How the hell did he find out his 'history' with all his tech a computer that could trace a detailed report on a person wouldn't be too hard. "But my question to you is this. Where have you been the last year and what have you been up to." Peter lost his smile and looked down at his hands. He wondered if he should lie or just straight out refuse but he didn't see a point.

"The last year I've been living on the streets. I know the statistics, too many children that go into the Gotham welfare system end up disappearing. The streets were the safer option. At first I was just trying to survive but then there was an incident with a mugger and I stopped him. After that I stopped more odd felony's, nothing big I never took on more that ten guys, less if they had guns. But about two months ago I began to recognize patterns in their activities and I could sometimes tell where they were going to be and what they were going to do... So I started doing more, making guns disappear into the river, burning meth labs, making enforcers turn up with cracked ribs, you know that sort of thing." Bruce was surprised by just how similar the boys development was similar to his own. Another similarity between the two, was that good or bad Batman couldn't tell.

"And your power?" Peter was a again surprised by that part, he must have seen him jump and realise that that was not the feet of a normal human.

"I got them from a genetically engineered spider bite. After it bit me all my physical abilities increased greatly, I can now stick to solid objects and I gained something that I call my spider-sense."

"'Spider-sense'?"

"Yeah. It pretty much tells me when I'm in danger and where it is coming from. It's how I knew you weren't a threat to me when you told me to get in the car. Apart from the bit where you used knock out gas on me, that was a bitch move." There was a long silence and Peter worried that he had take that 'bitch move' comment personally.

"Do you know why I brought you here?"

"To find the cause of my powers." It was an easy enough deduction and it was the most reasonable answer.

"Correct. But now I have a proposition for you." Peter frowned.

"What kind of 'proposition'." Batman straitened slightly.

"I am willing to train you and teach you how to fight crime. And if need be supply you any equipment you might need." It sounded way too good to be true.

"What's the catch?"

"No catch." Assured Batman. "But you do things on my rules and my terms." Peter thought about this for a moment before smiling and holding out his hand.

"Deal." Batman took his hand in his own.

"Deal."

* * *

**Two weeks later**

Batman was impressed. The boys problem wasn't so much needing to build up strength but more learning how to control it. He tested Peters full strength and he could lift a full ten tons. How Peter managed to not kill those thugs when they first met was beyond a miracle. He found his new students problem was either being too strong or holding back too much in fear of hurting his opponent.

But Peter was a quick study and his scientific genius had come in quite handy. In Peters time there he had developed something he called his 'web-shooters'. These gadgets were designed to be attached to his wrists and shoot out webbing when he made a particular hand sign. Right now they shot out two types of webbing on that was more elastic and designed for traveling, the other a thicker fluid that was designed to trap enemy's.

"And how is the young master Peter doing?" Alfred asked.

"Good, soon his training will be sufficient for him to survive on his own."

"Then I suppose that means that he won't have much reason to stay soon." Bruce shrunk away a little at the though. He found it hard to admit but he had grown fond of the young man. It was hard to describe the relationship they had. With only six years age difference his relationship with Peter managed to be Parental, brotherly, mentor-ish, friendship and in a weird sort of way partnership. He wasn't the only one who would miss him. Having Peter around brought about a brightness and warmth that hadn't been there since the death of Bruce's parent, and it had been surly missed. And whilst Batman might not have noticed, Alfred had noticed that Peters personality brought out more of Bruce Wayne and seemed to stop him from drowning in being the Batman.

**-Alert-Alert-Alert-**

Batman pushed all other thoughts aside and made his way towards the Batcomputer followed closely by Peter (now wearing a tank top and a pair of short, courtesy of Alfred) who had been lifting eight ton weights. A large map appeared on the screen and a small red dot appeared.

"What's that?" Peter asked indicating towards the dot.

"I have recently been tracking some of the minor crime lord's but I have been waiting for them to gather so that they could show me any criminals in the related area that I did not know of."

"Cool, let's go!" Peter cheered as he headed towards the bat-mobile.

"No." Peter practically tripped over himself as he came to a stop.

"'No'? What do you mean 'no'? Aren't we going?" Batman then began to stride towards the bat-mobile.

"No 'we' are not. 'I' am." Peter looked like he had just been slapped.

"Wait!? What!? Your screwing with me right? What was the point of training me if you were going to leave me behind?!" Batman ignored his outrage.

"I trained you to fight. Not to be my partner." Batman spoke coolly as he climbed into the bat-mobile. Peter was for lack of better words hurt. He knew he wasn't promised anything besides training and equipment but over the time he had been there with him and Alfred he had began to believe that he was somewhere he could maybe call 'home'. But that declaration from batman cut down hopes for that too. He was only there to learn. He didn't even know who the Batman was for fuck's sake.

"Sir!" Alfred yelled after his master but the bat-mobile was already zooming off. Alfred knew Bruce was only trying to protect Peter from the real danger but that was too harsh, there was no need to hurt the boy. Peter was still for the longest moment, fists clenched, body shaking. Then he was off, grabbing a hoody and his web-shooters. "Master Peter wait!" But before he could say anything Peter pulled the hood over his head hiding his face and jumped into the air using his web-shooters to swing out of the cave. And like that Alfred could swear the cave got bigger and colder.

* * *

Batman drove full speed to the meeting place, this was a big chance to take out multiple large hitters in the crime world at once. The phone in the bat-mobile rang but he ignored it. It was probably just Peter about to demand an answer as to why he wasn't aloud to come. The reason was simple, he was scared, the batman was scared that he might lose him because he was put at risk recklessly.

Batman pulled up around the corner of the meeting place and got out. He fired his grasping hook and shot up to the roof. He opened a roof window and snuck in. He watched as men gathered around a table. Twelve men sat, nine that he recognised three he didn't. Each man had a personal body guard, none were carrying their weapons as this was a peaceful meeting, the guns were guarded by five men carrying AK-47's. When he made his move he would have to take them down first.

"Good evening gentlemen." Spoke a skinny man with a receiving hair line wearing a dark striped suit. "We are here to discuss our 'little problem'. The Bat." There was a collective groan from the other men at the table.

"There is no proof that the Bat is real." A taller man spoke.

"And yet we are all here." The first man said.

"We know we have a problem that doesn't mean the Bat." A third man spoke.

"Well what would you say it is? Gotham cops suddenly giving a shit?" That was met by a long silence.

"Some of my men have been talking about a street kid blowing up cars and what not!" One of the men spoke as if that might be the answer. He was met by a load of strange looks.

"Are you fucking retarded Masolin!" Another man barked.

"What the fuck!" The men at the table turned to see the gunmen in a panic.

"What's going on!" Demanded a mobster.

"Your guns sir! They just disappeared!" The men were quick on their feet.

"What do you mea-"

"Ahhh!" Two men yelled out as they flew off into the darkness in opposite directions. The remaining men pointed their guns randomly into the darkness but not firing in fear of shooting their friends. Seconds later the two remaining men flew up in the sky screaming out before going dead silent.

"It's the Bat!" Yelled a thug. Batman dropped from the ceiling and landed with a startling thud on the table. "No that's the Bat!" Batman worked fast throwing four bolos that trapped four of the guards. And then lunged at the others. He grabbed two of the remaining bodyguards and slammed their heads together. That left him open to be tackled and slammed into the table by another guard. Batman stifled a groan of pain and struck the man in the spine with his elbow. He was about to be met by a fist to the face until-

"Heads up!" The thug turned at a pair of feet slammed strait into his face knocking him clean off his feet. Peter then shot two webs out and stuck two of the mob bosses together.

"Hey!" Yelled out one.

"The hell is this!"

"I told you not to come." Batman scolded turning towards the remaining thugs. Peter smirked under his hood.

"Like I was going to listen to you." Peter mocked. "Now let's get to work!"

* * *

"You were stupid! Reckless! And nearly got yourself killed!" Batman yelled from within the bat-mobile.

"No! _You_ were stupid! Reckless! And nearly got _yourself_ killed!"

"I'm trained for this!"

"So am I!"

"Not well enough!"

"Kiss my ass! You'd be dead if it weren't for me!" Batman was silent for the longest moment.

"How did you follow me?"

"You were so out of it you didn't even notice me on the roofs and on the occasional web." Another long silence. "You know... This is the most emotion I have seen you show ever since we met."

"... I'm sorry." Peter blinked a few times.

"Come again?"

"What I said before... I'm sorry for the way I talked to you back in the cave." Peter was staring now. "I was... Scared." Peter was now going into full on shock. "I felt if you were around I would be too worried about your well being to think straight. And that could lead to me getting both of us killed."

"Then why bother training me to be your partner?"

"I did not train you to be my partner. I trained you so that you could control your strength!"

"Well tough! Cause that is what I am! From now on we are partners, discussion over!" There was a long silence.

"Fine then, partners." Peter smiled.

"I been thinking, if we are going to be partners I should have a superhero name."

"Like what? Bat-boy?"

"Oh good lord no! You know not all things need to begin with the word 'bat.' 'Batman', 'bat-mobile', 'bat-cave' ect. I'll come up with something on my own."

* * *

"You know Alfred if you ever give up being a butler you could always become someone's gran?" Peter complimented/mocked the older man as he spun in his red and black new costume. It had been two days since the incident with the gang meeting and that had been more than enough time for Peter and Alfred to construct a suit that aloud great amounts of maneuver ability.

"Very funny master Peter." The pair turned to see Batman walking up to them.

"Hey bats. What's u-" Batman pulled down his cowl to revile Bruce Wayne. If Peter wasn't wearing a full mask his jaw would have hit the floor.

"If we are going to be partners we might as well be completely honest with one another." Peter nodded slowly. "And I think you deserve a proper chance at life outside of being a vigilante. So I wish to adopt you into my family and give you that life."

"You're Bruce Wayne."

"Yes."

"That... Actually explains all the expensive tech and the Butler."

"Well? What do you say?" Peter gave his heart warming smile from beneath his mask.

"Yeah, I'd love to be your family. But my name stays Peter Benjamin Parker."

"Deal. So, you got the suit. Got the name?" Peter pulled off his masked and gave it a good look.

"Yeah. Just call me **Spiderman**."

* * *

**wow, actually surprised that I wrote this much. Love coming up with stories but hate writing them. This story is going to show the development of Batman and Spider-Man's partnership. I am going to involve as many relevant characters as I can romantic or otherwise from the dc universe. There will be no appearances of any marvel characters mostly because complete crossovers are far too complicated (and dc villains are way better than marvel ones, go on prove me wrong). There will also be no Dick Grayson in my story simply because the path Peter Parker will be taking later in the story is far too similar to that of Nightwing. Peter will also get a bit OOC at some points so don't get mad.**

**this is not a guy on guy story. I thought about it and decided against it.**

**if you like stories that have regular updates I can promise you nothing. He'll look at my other stories their Delia's updates can be translated as hiatus.**

**but reviews are still participated. **


	2. The Clown's in Town

Peter walked through the front door of Wayne manor and let out an exhausted sigh.

"How was school sir?" Alfred asked. Pater gave him a life hating look.

"I hate teenagers." Was his his simple answer.

"Any particular reason?" Peter hung his coat up on a hook and took off his fake glasses.

"Firstly, they are _so_ immature. Secondly, even after not being in school for a year all the work is way too easy. And third, girls have started giggling around me. Why? Girls never giggled around me before!"

"Perhaps puberty has had a good effect on you." Peter gave himself the once over, the spider bite had had some _pleasant _physical effects. "Master Bruce is waiting for you in the Batcave."

"Does he ever leave his little den?" Peter asked activating the secret passage behind the grandfather-clock.

"I believe that the Batcave is the centre of the manor and everything else is the 'little den' to master Bruce." Peter let out a short laugh as the clock went back to hiding the passage to the Batcave. Peter descended down the stairs to find Bruce already dressed as Batman with his cowl down.

"Take a look at that." Batman instructed pointing at something in a box to his left. Peter leaned against the desk and took the object out of the box.

"A joker card?"

"I can see that, what else can you see?"

"Sharp edges, sharp enough to cut bone. It's hard, feels like metal but it's too light... Some kind of plastic polymer, specially made. Not too complex or expensive but, unique. Shouldn't be hard to find who made this."

"I already did." He brought up a picture of a man in a lab coat with his face distorted with freakishly wide eyes and smile.

"Fuck!" Was all Peter could say.

"His name is Justin Carbin. He was found last night in his lab in South Gotham dead. Medical report says he died of suffocation. But this is wrong. I did my own study and he was found with traces of a gas that made his face like that and made him laugh."

"Laugh?"

"Constantly. To the point where there is no oxygen left in his body, causing him to die suffering." Peter look a moment to stare at the picture before raising the card.

"What does any of these things have to do with one another?"

"I believe that Carbin was being threatened to make more of those cards and that one was lost amongst a batch and as soon as the one doing the threatening was done he killed him with the gas."

"But that leaves the question, why?"

"I don't know for sure Peter. But it looks like someone is building an artillery."

"The card, the laughing gas... Someone is going for a theme." Bruce turned to face Peter.

"I get the terrible feeling like something's about to start Peter and we need to be prepared."

* * *

"When you said 'be prepared' I wasn't expecting anything so terrible." Peter moaned as he and Bruce stood side by side in expensive suits at an important charity event. Alfred said that Peter looked good in his suit, Peter just thought he looked a lot better with a haircut that made him look clean, less like a gutter child and more like a rich boy.

"Don't complain just smile and shake hands." Bruce scolded without his perfect smile wavering in the silghtest.

"Ah Bruce! Good to see you!" Called out a rosy cheeked plump man.

"Ah Mr Root it's good to see you! Peter I would like you to meet Richard Root. Mr Root here is running this particular event." The plump man let out a laugh that made Peter imagine him as Santas less hairy younger brother.

"Please Bruce, it's just Richard! And it is a pleasure to meet you Peter." Peter shook the mans meaty hand.

"Nice to meet you too." Peter didn't feel comfortable in these sort of situations but he had to try.

"I hear Bruce here adopted you." The Santa wanabee stated more than questioned.

_Who hasn't?_ Peter wondered sarcastically. "Yeah I guess I'm very fortunate."

"I could name a lot of kids that would love to be in your position."

"Well too bad for them." Peter joked a little desperately. The fat man let out a loud laugh. _Seriously? You thought that was funny?_

"Peter, there's a buffy over there. Why don't you go help yourself to some food?" Bruce said giving Peter a merciful means of retreat.

"Yeah I think I'll do that!" Peter said a little too eagerly. Peter weaved though the crowd and found the buffy table. _I could feed all the homeless in Gotham with all this. Or one me!_ Peter eagerly filled his plate with whatever non veg based foods he could find. He then found himself a nice little corner in which to stand and eat in peace.

"First time at a charity event?" Peter to see a man standing next to him. The man was in his early to mid forties with greying hair, large glasses and in Peters opinion an impressive moustache.

"Um, yeah. You can tell?" The man chuckled.

"Your talking to a fellow wall flower. James Gordon." Peter stuck out his hand and they shook.

"Peter Parker."

"Oh! Your the boy Bruce Wayne adopted." Peter cringed, was that how people were going to see him from now on?

"Yep, that's me..."

"I'm sorry. You shouldn't be judged by your family." Gordon apologized sincerely realizing his mistake. "It's just such things rarely happen in Gotham."

"What do you mean?" Peter asked arching an eyebrow.

"Well the upper and lower classes in Gotham are like two separate species, they rarely mix. They hate one another like cats and dogs. The rich in Gotham from thirty years ago began taking advantage of the working class and stopped giving fare wages just to thicken their wallets. The Wayne's tried to fix that before their unfortunate end. No one tried again after that, the working class have always resented them for it, and resentment is always met with resentment." Peter nodded.

"Then again a lot of the Gotham slums are due to all that. It's kind of hard to forget." The police inspector arched an eyebrow.

"Your rather insightful." Peter laughed.

"Yeah, I'm not just a pretty face. And don't forget where it is I come from." Gordan chuckled. "If it isn't too rude might I ask, how it is a police officer winds up at a rich peoples ego stroking contest."

"Well it's rather simple really. My being here insures that no crooks get the idea to attack."

"Why? Are you some kind of super cop?" Gordan laughed again

"No, but no crook in Gotham would attack a cop."

"Why is that?"

"You hurt a cop and the whole police force comes after you."

"If you commit any kind of crime shouldn't that mean the police should come after you?"

"You said it." Gordon mumbled. "Unfortunately that isn't the way in Gotham." Gordon said with a little shame.

"Hey! Peter come over here for a minute!" Bruce called from across the room. "There's someone I want you to meet!" Peter gave Gordon one last look and held out his hand.

"Well it was a pleasure talking to you. But duty (or in this case boring rich people politics) calls." Gordon shook his hand and smiled.

"And it was good talking to you too Peter." With a final nod of his head Peter headed off. Gordon took a final good look at the plate of food that Peter was eating from. _Is he really going to eat all that?_

"Ah Peter." Bruce greeted with his arm around the shoulders of a handsome well dressed man in a suit. "I would like to introduce you to the District Attorney, and my personal friend-"

"Harvey Dent." Peter finished holding his hand out. Dent smiled and shook his hand.

"You know who I am?" Harvey sounded genuinely surprised at the youngster knowing of him.

"Well yeah. Your very popular in Gotham." Peter said giving a smile.

"Really?"

"Oh yeah, they hate your guts."

"Peter!" Bruce scolded the teen in a voice that wouldn't draw attention.

"Oh, well... that's ah, shame..." Harvey seemed a little surprised and dejected.

"Oh no! You misunderstand!" Peter said quickly. "I come from a real messed up part of Gotham! So them hating you shows just how good you are at your job! It's really the biggest compliment that I can give you!" Harvey burst out laughing.

"I like this kid! Where'd you find him Bruce?" Harvey asked giving Peter a shake on the shoulder.

"It's a long story." Bruce said simply with his regular 'smile'. Harvey chuckled and shook his head.

"So Peter, I imagine your tired of getting asked this but, what's it like being adopted by arguably the richest men in Gotham?" Peter took on a teary face.

"The man owns seven Plasma TV's but no cable channels apart from the off news ones." Harvey laughed even louder than before.

"Are you serious?!" He asked looking between the two. Peter nodded with a quivering lip. Harvey aloud himself a few more chuckles as Bruce just shrugged nonchalantly. "Look I would love to hang out with you lovely gentlemen and talk about Bruce's tragic living choices, but alas. I have rich backsides to kiss and suck up to." Just as Harvey was about to take his leave all the televisions in the room came on and showed the symbol of a smiling clown.

**"Hello Gotham!"** A voice called out in a cheerful tone. **"Joker here! I must admit I am quite in love with your little city! All the crime, corruption and general ****_love_ in the air. And this is now a personal note to a particular 'Bat'!" **Peter and Bruce shared a quick look. **"I know you don't know me, and I don't know you but... I don't know~~ I get the feeling we could have all kinds of _fun~ _together! Chao~ Gotham!" **As soon as the feed cut off the room burst into murmurs.

"Well umm... I think that will be the end of our night..." Bruce played of the shaken rich boy act very well.

"What?" Dent said. "Oh yes. Of course, you should go home." Without further prompting Bruce turned and made his exit followed quickly by Peter. Peter spared one last look at the defence attorney. When Dent had shook him on the shoulder it had felt hard and... angry. There was something strange about the man, but that could wait for now.

* * *

"So this 'Joker' is our guy then?" Peter stated more than asked. The two had already changed into their costumes and were speeding through Gotham in the Batmobile.

"Yes and now we have a trail. That broadcast went all over Gotham and there is only one broadcasting tower that can send out those kind of broadcasts that can hack the air waves."

"Do the police know this? Because if they do we can't just go up to them and ask to have a snoop around."

"They don't but they will. Right now they will be looking for places that can do such things and given their general disorder we have about an hour and twenty minutes."

"I met the commissioner earlier. He didn't seem like a 'disordered' kind of guy." Peter said in a defensive tone.

"He isn't." Batman said in a voice that most people wouldn't notice carried a slight tone of softness. He knew the commissioner some how, Peter made a mental note to ask about that later. "We're here." They hid the car and made the creative approach of using webbing and grappling hook straight to the top of the building. They entered the building through a top window. It looked like a regular radio station with a bit of an expensive techno flare.

"Not much of a struggle went on here." Batman observed. "Who ever came in threatened the people here with weapons, making them too scared to fight back." Spiderman was always impressed by how he did that.

"Why do you think there were people here at all? No signals come from this tower regularly after 5 pm. What makes you think that there was anyone here?" Spiderman enquired. He might be a genius but he wasn't a detective.

"There are papers on the floor. I'm guessing someone was carrying them, bad guys come in, scared they drop the papers. This place is immaculate, everything is ordered and cleaned so there is no chance of papers being left out without so much as a flashy paper weight to hold them down." Batman spoke quickly still looking for more clues as to what went on. "Now the only question is, where are the workers now?" Batman examined the the room and noticed something strange about the dirt on the floor. He pulled a swab from his belt picked some of the dirt and placed it in a differed buckle in the belt for analysis. He placed his hand on his cowls right ear and contacted the Batcave. "Alfred. I am sending you you a sample of dirt contact me when the analysis says where it comes from."

"Very good master Bruce." Batman then noticed how quite Spiderman had become. He looked up and realised that he was no longer there.

"Spiderman?" He found him standing in one of the radio booths looking down at something.

"I found one of the workers." He said in a distant voice. Batman looked down to see a woman lying dead on the floor with a face splitting smile on her face.

* * *

As they drove towards the location the Batcomputer said the dirt was from the Batmobile was filled with a cruel silence.

"I'm sorry." Batman said breaking the silence.

"What?" Spiderman said breaking from his trance.

"You shouldn't have had to see that... What happened to that woman... If you want to back out-"

"No." Spiderman said firmly. "I'm going to see death, there is no stopping that. It's... It's just been a while since I've seen death." Batman knew that Peter was referring to his uncle dying in his arm. And while he felt shame for putting Peter in a position to see that he also felt, well pride. When he became batman and saw his first dead body after his parents murder he went into a deep depression, but not Peter. Peter seemed upset but at the same time he appeared even more driven to to stop the criminals.

"We're here." Batman said as they arrived at their destination. They climbed out and approached. The building was once a factory on the docks, but after the recession it went out of business and no one wanted to buy the property because it would cost too much to make into a proper working environment.

The two climbed onto the roof and looked through windows to find guards. There were ruffly fifteen of them all carrying heavy machine guns of different brands, all wearing bad Halloween clown masks.

"Their guns are of different brands." Batman pointed out. "That means that they were stolen. This Joker character isn't working for any crime families, otherwise they would have supplied the same weapons."

"They could be mercenaries carrying their own guns."

"Doubt it, some of them seem uncomfortable with the weight of their guns and they seem rather nervous."

"Maybe they are unexperiunsed?"

"Posibly." Batman thought for a moment. "But I doubt it, they were mercenaries they would at least have some level of military experience. Their more likely small time crooks that got offered big money and weren't smart enough to ask questions."

"So this Joker guy is paying them?"

"Most likely." Spiderman leaned in to look at something. "What is it?"

"What do you think that is?" Spiderman pointed to a large red cloth that seemed to be hiding something big.

"I don't know. But we need to find out where those people are." The two disappeared into the dark. One of the thugs went outside to take a piss when his mask was pulled off by a white thread that came from above.

"Wha-!" Before he could finish more ove the same substance covered his mout. He was then yanked up into the air by something wrapped around his right foot. He tried to scream but no sound escaped the white material. When he stopped he was dangling over the roof being held by what looked like a grappling hook being held by the Batman.

"Hi there!" A cheerful greeting came from the caped crusaders partner. "I'm Spiderman and he's Batman. Maybe you've heard of us? You see we want to know what the Joker is up to, wanna give us a hint?" The man began to make muffled sound that sounded like protest so a Batman loosened the line. A muffled screen came out of the thug as he fell, stopping before he hit the floor. The line then pulled in quickly forcing to face the duo again.

"Let's try this again." Spoke Batman in his deep dark voice. "Where is the Joker?" The man mumbled something with a panic.

"In the back?" Spiderman interoperated. The man gave an affirmative nod. "And the hostages?" He muffled something again. Batman looked at him. "I think he said under the red curtain." He nodded. Spiderman turned back to him. "Well you have been really helpful so instead of nocking out your teeth we're just going to give you a concussion." Batman then gave the crook a quick blow to the head before untangling him and leaving spiderman to web him up.

"So? How do you want to play it?" Spiderman asked. Batman went up to an overhead window and looked down.

"You pull away these guys guns from up here and stick their feet to the ground. They aren't carrying back up weapons so that will be enough. Whilst you do that I will go a around the edges and take out the other men."

"Maybe we should check on the hostages first. It could be that they are prepped with a bomb or something like that. You know in case the cops found them here and they needed a quick bargaining chip." Batman gave a nod.

"Good idea, I'll-"

"No I'll go. I can stick to the wall and the shadows. I'll go in and check out their situation, when I'm done I'll come back and then we can put the plan into motion." Batman wanted to argue but he was a pragmatist and he saw how Peter was better suited for the task.

"Fine, be careful." Peter gave a quick nod and climbed through a window crawling on the walls towards were the hostages were hidden. When he got there he remained in the shadows and lifted he red sheet and took a look inside. The hostages were tied upside down in some kind of giant glass cylinder container and he noticed something strange on the floor. There were what looked like empty balloons attached to pipes that led to something outside of the hostages glass prison. He followed a long pipe as long as his eyes could follow before... A loud bang of a door being swung open.

"Hello boys~~! I'm _baaack_~~~~~!" A high male voice called out. There was something sick in that voice. Something that scared Peter. And then the voice started to sing. "Itsy bitsy spider went up the water spout." Foot steps echoed through the warehouse. "Down came the rain and..." The footsteps stopped. "Washed the spider out..." He was on the other side of the hostages. The Joker. "Oh, boys~ Did you know we have uninvited guests?" The thugs looked at one another in confusion and fear at their boss' presence. Peters blood froze in his veins. How! How did he know he was there?!

"Boss..? There's no one here." One of the thugs said fear clear in his voice. The Joker spun on his heals to face the thug. He took long leisurely strides with his hands stuck in his pockets. Batman now had a proper opportunity to look at the Joker. He was skinny dressed in a purple suit, had slicked back green hair and was wearing white makeup and blood red thin lipstick.

"You see this flower?" The joker asked pointing to a bright plastic flower on his left lapel. "Smell it! It's funny!" The two goons looked nervously towards each other before the first one leaned forward to swell the plastic flower. As soon as he was an inch too close a plume of green grass blew out of the accessory and into the goons face.

"What the-" The goon began coughing.

"Hey man you alright!?" The second one asked looking panicked. He then spun on the Joker pointing his gun at him. "Son of a bitch! You turning on us!?" The Joker shrugged with his hands raised and his head tilted.

"Not my fault if a man can't take a joke." Then it happened. The first man began to chuckle, then he cackled and then he broke into full on laughter. Spiderman couldn't see it because of his hiding spot, but Batman could. The the mans face was distorted in the same way the woman in the office was. Except he could see it all play out. Despite the historical laughter he could see the fear and the agony in the mans wide unclosing eyes as tears rolled out and he began to turn blue from the lack of air getting to his lungs. Then the Joker joined in. "See He gets it!" It was too much. Batman smashed through the cieling and landed in the middle of the warehouse. "Hey look! There are bats in my Belfry! HAHAHAHAHA!"

Batman went straight into acting toughing out batarang's disarming the furthest thugs. He dashed forward colliding with the nearest enemy's before they could aim their guns. He wanted to help the now dying man but he had no cure but by taking down the remaining thugs he might be able to save their lives. Spiderman took this opportunity to try and help the hostages. There was no lid to the glass prison so he climbed in. He decided his best option was to remove any possible treats. So ignoring the muffled demands/pleads for rescue from the hostages he went about wrapping the balloons in a layer of webbing (which he only assumed were filled with poisons gas). That done he had a choice to make. He could pull them out and risk the getting spotted and shot. Or he could leave them there, hope there wasn't a back up for the gas and help his partner.

"Go get him then you dolt!" The joker yelled booting the goon that had previously been pointing a gun at him towards the Bat. With the small distraction the Joker made a brake for it. Batman wanted to pursue but was stopped by the overwhelming numbers.

"Get him!"

"He can't beat all of us!"

"Lets take this fucker out!"

"Oh? Where we going?" A pleasant voice asked as Spiderman collided with their ranks knocking men aside (and flying). "Lets go some where classy. You know the sort of place that has bread sticks!" Spiderman and Batman were now back to back facing the goons.

"The hostages?"

"Safe for now." Batman hadn't seen Spiderman remote them so he could only assume that he had neutralised the threat. But that didn't make them _safe_ they had to work fast. For all they knew there could be some kind of back up threat towards the hostages.

"The Joker is getting away." Batman pointed out hinting that that should have been Spiderman's priority. Spiderman either ignored or didn't notice the tone.

"Go! I can handle these guys!" Batman didn't need any prompting as he weaved through the goons to give chase after the Joker. Batman gained quickly on the skinny man. As soon as he got close enough he grabbed the Jokers wrist and spun him colliding into the ground. The Joker crasher down laughing.

"Again! Again!' The criminal cackled with child like glee. Batman grabbed him by his tie and yanked him up, rubbing the Jokers face fluffily in an attempt to remove the make up and review the identity of the lunatic. Only as he removed his hand none of the makeup was remover form the clowns face nor was there any on his glove. The Joker flashed a wide smile. "No cheap tricks for this girl!" The Joker then grabbed the hand Batman was holding him with and high volts of electricity shocked through the caped crusader. Batman might have screamed if his body wasn't overtaken by spasms. The Joker smiled down at him showing a high voltage shock ring. "I gotta say its been less fun than expected, but what you gonna do." The Joker shrugged and held a gun out pointing it at Batman's head. He pulled the trigger. A stick stuck out of the gun with the word 'bang' written on it. "What? Nothing?! Not even a giggle?!" Batman didn't blink he just kicked up colliding with the Jokers chin making him stable back. Taking the opening he jumped back to his feat now regaining control of his limbs.

"This end's." Batman spoke in a finishing tone.

"Now that's more like it!" The Joker yelled out pointing the gun back at him. Batman ignored the empty threat and was about to charge only to be knocked aside as a shot and a scream rang out. Batman saw Spiderman standing where he had previously been only with the stick from the Joker's gun prop impaling his left forearm. Not hesitating for a moment Spiderman lunged forward and crashed his fist into the Jokers face. The Joker hit the ground unconscious but somehow still smiling. There was a long moment where neither hero moved. Then Spiderman went to pull out the prop from his arm now on his knees from the pain but Batman stopped him.

"That could cause further damage. Hold on till we get back to the cave." Spiderman nodded in too much pain to speak.

* * *

Peter watched in the bat-cave as the police arrived at the scene after receiving an 'anonymous' tip off that this was where the criminal known as the Joker had been hiding with his crew. According to a Detective named Harvey 'Bollux', wait no, Bullock, their arrest had everything to do with Gotham's finest and nothing to do with two vigilantes who would remain nameless.

"How do the bandages feel? Too tight?" Alfred asked.

"Their fine, I just feel much better now that there isn't a stick in my arm." Peter smirked.

"Your lucky to have your healing abilities, otherwise it would have taken months for that to heal. With you it should only take weeks." Peter leaned back on the medical bed that Alfred had forced him into.

"I love being me."

"I am sure you do." Alfred said in his 'I'll humour you' tone.

"Peter..." The two turned to see Bruce standing rather awkwardly, dressed in his cassual civilian cloths.

"I'll leave you too alone." Alfred said as he made his exit. Bruce took a moment before speaking.

"I'm-"

"Don't." Bruce blinked.

"What?"

"Don't apologise." Peter smiled. "We're partners, that means I have to have you back even if it means taking the occasional bullet for you. Which I did... Kinda... But you can thank me if you want." Bruce smiled, he forgot sometimes that (despite his immaturity) Peter could be much wiser than people twice his senior.

"Thank you."

"Don't mention it. I mean I will, a lot, but you don't have to." Bruce chuckled and sat on Peter's bed before taking on a slightly serious expression.

"How did you know the gun was going to go off?" Peter shrugged.

"Everything the Joker used was designed to be both mocking and deadly. He wouldn't have carried a regular gun and he wouldn't have just carried any old prop. It was a hunch I felt worth reacting on." Peter then looked more closely at Bruce. "It's the sort of thing you always recognise why didn't you this time?" Bruce took a moment.

"I couldn't see him as a person... Everything about the Joker... He didn't seem like a criminal, or even a mental patient running loose... He just seemed like a monster..." Peter saw something In Bruce's eyes. It could have been hatred or fear, he couldn't tell. "My judgement of the Joker made me act carelessly for a moment and that hurt you, I'm sorry-" Peter punched him in the arm.

"Hey! No apologies!" Bruce looked at him then chuckled and then there was the silence. It had been a long day but someone had to speak their thoughts. "Why do i get the feeling that this wasn't the last that we'll see of that lunatic?" Bruce looked grim.

"Because monsters like him don't stay down."

* * *

In Arkham Asylum for the criminal insane a particularly smily inmate rocked back and forth in his straight-jacket giggling away to himself.

"**My head it filled with thoughts of dread~**

**All because of the spiders in my head~**

**And if i can't take it don't blame it on me~**

**Just blame those bats in my belfry~**

_**H****AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA~~!**_"


	3. Dawn of the Grundy

Peter sat at his desk at Gotham Academy wondering, what made the wold believe that teenagers deserve to suffer through five days of school every week. Peter fought crime, saved lives, protected the innocent, and how was he repaid? School! He took a glance at the clock on the wall. Four hours to go till the day ends. Peter begins to wonder if this is his 'villain origin story'.

"Alright class today we are going to be mixing some chemicals so pair up!" The teacher called out. Peter groaned, despite his personality Peter always seemed to have a problem making fiends. It was the same in his old school and he didn't know why. Peter was a looser in his old school sure, but all the other losers got to have friends so why didn't he!?

"Hey want to be partners?" Peter turned to see a red haired girl with green eyes and faded freckles.

"Yeah, sure." Peter didn't argue. At first he had avoided girls in the school on a whole, due to how they had been acting around him, but that had seemed to fade. Peter figured that it wasn't so much due to him being him but more about him being on TV and therefore the hottest topic. Though once they got to know him they realised that he wasn't the plagued soul that could match some sort of sexy male character that seemed to be all the rage nowadays. That seemed to make them loose a reasonable amount of interest, though he still caught the odd look.

"Names Barbra by the way." The red head said taking a seat next to him as the teacher placed the chemicals and instruction sheets on the desk.

"Peter. Nice to meat you Barbra." Peter gave their instructions the once over. _This is so weak!_

"This is so weak!" Peter blinked. Did he think out loud accidentally? He turned to see his partner to find that she had been the source. She caught him looking. "What? It is! This is the sort of thing you should show kids so that they can say 'ooh pwiddy cuwers~' I mean chemistry is hardly my forte but this just sad!". Peter blinked a few times. Maybe school wouldn't be a complete hell.

* * *

Bruce sat in his meating fighting down the headache that threatened to split his skull. He sat in the board meeting as the respective men argued their ideas for new products for them to produce or invest in. Even though the name on the building said 'Wayne Enterprises' he did not own all of it. Sad truth was that when his parents were alive they controlled ninety-six percent of the company (in legal terms that means no one else really gets a say). But when his parents died the board members brought out their black-suit lawyers and were able to scratch away at his control and make it their own. Bruce was left with a weaker fourty-eight percent. Bruce had been smart and transferred eight percent Lucius Fox (a trusted friend) so that the suits couldn't argue that he could not be trusted with so much power. He was a notorious playboy after all. Fortunately no man beside Bruce owned more that nine percent of the company so it was impossible for any of them to make decisions without his consent.

"I am telling you GothCorp is the perfect investment site!" Bruce new all of these men better than anyone. Not out of friendship but because of his detailed investigation into their lives business or personal (whilst his first responsibility would always be as Batman but he would never neglect his parents precious company). But despite this he still struggled to see them as actual people some times.

"No! MercuryLabs has never let us down before so we should show some faith in them!"

"They haven't made anything ground breaking in three years! I say we take a chance on Ferris Boyle and GothCorp!"

"You don't 'chance' thirty-seven million dollars!" The whole room broke into shouting of each mans opinions.

_So good to see civilised people getting along._ Bruce thought to himself. "Gentlemen, gentlemen." Bruce spoke in a clear and relaxed tone. Weather as Batman or Bruce Wayne he had learnt that his voice can have a powerful effect over people. "Whilst MercuryLabs is still a friend of Wayne Enterprise it already has considerable donations from us and anymore might look like we are prematurely trying to buy stocks. As for GothCorp, I agree that we should invest, I have seen some of Ferris Boyle's plans and they are worthy being a part of. But Ferris Boyle and his company already have manny investors, so whilst we should donate we should at least reduce the investment to a tidy twenty-million. Don't you agree?" The men responded with gentlemanly grunts and murmurs. The best deals can be seen when no one is happy in the end.

With a few more minutes of red tape the meeting was ended to Bruce's relief. He might hide it well but even he has to occasionally face the effect's of fatigue. With a genuine smile that few saw, Bruce walked up to his friend Lucius Fox.

"Hey there Bruce!" The older man greeted. "Need help with something?"

"Come to my office for a minute." Bruce said as he began to walk and slipped back into his stupid-rich-playboy-smile. After a short elevator lift and Bruce exchanging a few flirtatious words with his secretary the two entered his lavish office and Bruce lost the stupid smile.

"So what is it?" Lucius asked.

"I suppose you heard about my new partner?" Lucius was one of the few men that Bruce would trust with his secret. Lucius gave him a lop-sided smile.

"Spiderman? Yeah I heard. So am I going to meat him or what?"

"Not yet, but hopefully soon."

"I suppose you need me to make him some armour like yours." Bruce shook his head.

"No, his style of fighting is different from mine. He needs to be light on his feat and he needs to be able to move his body more freely." Lucius scratched his beard and frowned slightly.

"I could still probably build something for him if I saw him in action, it would probable only take a few changes... That all you needed Bruce?"

"Not exactly." Bruce pulled out a piece of paper and handed it to Lucius.

"What is this?" He asked as he unraveled it to see a chemical formula.

"It is the formula Spiderman has been using to create his webbing. I was wondering if you could improve upon it?" Lucius raised his glasses to get a better look.

"I imagine so, but it is already quite impressive so I will want to take some tests and get a better idea of how he uses it in action... This is actually really good! Your new partner must have some nice qualifications, where did you find him?"

"In an ally. And he doesn't have any qualifications."

"What?" Lucius asked perplexed by the statement.

"He's sixteen, no qualifications." Lucius' classes dropped low on his nose as he stared at Bruce in shock.

"A sixteen year old did this?" Lucius asked indicating towards the paper.

"Yes." Lucius took a moment.

"Is he that boy your-"

"Peter Parker, yes." Lucius took a moment to raise his glasses a little.

"Ok then... I'll get to it then..."

"I have faith in you Lucius." Bruce gave him a pat on the shoulder as he headed out the door, leaving Lucius a little gob smacked by the news. He needed to get this kid to work for him!

* * *

Peter made his way through Wayne manor to get to his favourite sofa. When he reached it he fell onto it lazily and let out an exhausted grunt.

"Ruff day." Peter turned to see Bruce holding a mug of coffee and doing a good job of hiding his own exhaustion.

"You have no idea."

"Wanna bet?" Peter moved to sit upright so that Bruce could join him.

"Ok so get this, I have the scientific skills to put Heisenberg to shame (yes that was a Breaking Bad reference) and I have to sit around burning stuff with a bunsen burner and writing an essay about what materials make which colours. Not why! Just which! That is it! It is the same as asking a kid which colour is which!" Bruce scoffs at him.

"That's it? I had to discuss what is economically appropriate with todays economy in terms of investment and stocks whilst maintaining the image of a stupid playboy millionaire!" The two glared at one another both believing that their own experience worse. Though after a long moment they were both too worn out to continue so they both just sighed and relaxed.

"I made a friend today." Peter added after another moment.

"That's good. Is she pretty?" Peter spun on him.

"How did you know it was a she?!"

"Instinct." Bruce said simple as he took a drink of his coffee. Peter gave him a long look before settling back down.

"Why?" Bruce shrugged.

"No reason. It's just that pretty women can be an easy distraction." Peter laughed.

"Like your one to talk Mr Playboy." Bruce to his credit didn't even blink.

"I never really get close to those women, their only really used as part of my disguise."

"That's pretty cold." Bruce had the decency to look a little ashamed.

"I know it isn't right, even though I don't take advantage of them. But like I said no better distraction than a pretty woman. If everyone is looking at their good looks and mine then no one really wonders what I am thinking." Peter was rather impressed. Bruce had made sure that his disguise didn't just exist in himself but also all the people around him. It was cold, but it worked. They had another long moment. "I got your webbing design to Lucius Fox."

"Oh? What did he think?" Bruce took another drink of his coffee before answering.

"He thinks they can be improved on, but he was impressed given your age." Peter smiled at that. He knew Lucius Fox was the designer of all the equipment they used and he had to admit that that felt like quite the compliment.

**-Alert-Alert-Alert-**

"And here I was having such a good day." Peter muttered sarcastically as he and Bruce abandoned their spots on the couch and headed to the batcave. When they entered the batcave they could see footage of men getting out of cars and heading towards docks on the large batcomputer screen.

"Do you know who that is?" Batman asked pointing at a man on the screen as he headed straight for his costume. Peter examined the man who looked like a grey haired version of the godfather.

"That's Rupert Thorne. He runs the main smuggling gang in Gotham."

"Right." Confirmed Batman. "I've been keeping tabs on him and all his activities."

"Why not just kick his ass and drop him off at the police station?"

"Thorne is clever. He is careful who he meets and talks with and never handles any goods himself. So even if we brought him in he probable wouldn't even get to the court room's."

"So what are we going to do?"

"We're going to supply evidence." Batman said whilst pulling up his cowl.

* * *

The Duo drove through the Gotham streets on their way towards Rupert Thorne and his gang.

"So you understand what you have to do?" Batman asked.

"Yep. Whilst you find evidence on Thorne, I sneak around and destroy whatever it is he is smuggling into Gotham."

"Good. And remember, if there are people being transported you have to wait for me before taking action. We would have to take out all of Thorne's men before getting them out of there, otherwise we are just putting them at risk."

"Eye-eye, Sir!" Peter mocked, giving a fake military salut. Soon they reached the docks and without waisting a moment Batman told Spiderman where to go and they sped off in their respected directions. Peter fought the urge to swing from crate to crate (which would be _super fun!_) and stuck to running on the roofs of the crates where no-one below would be able to see him. He tried to move as quietly as possible but he was finding it a hard skill to master. Unlike his partner he was natural clumsy. Usually his spider-sence would warn him of danger so he never needed to look out for it. But when sneaking, that is the aim of the game.

In less than a minute he found himself looking down at a group of men with powerful guns surrounding a shipment container. Spiderman was surprised to see the guards. Normally with smuggling deals in places like this the two parties will never meet, one would drop off the product and the other would pick it up. So this would lead him to believe that there were people in the container. After all if anyone in there got out they would have to have men there to stop them from getting to the police.

Peter counted five guards. Three at the front and two at the back. Easy! Peter moved as quickly and quietly as possible so that he was on the container facing them. Spiderman fired webbing at both the mens mouths stifling any chance of them screaming out. The men looked surprised and ready to shoot, only to have their guns snagged away by separate web-lines. Spiderman then jumped down landing feat first into the man on the lefts head knocking him out instantly. Then without wasting a moment he dived towards the other back guard and struck him on the chin making him fall into a black sleep. He dragged there bodies into the dark and tied them up quickly with some webbing.

Peter moved back to the top of the container and moved to to a point where he could better see the remaining three men. He decided his best option was to separate them. He took a coin out from his utility belt and threw it around the corner from the men. The sound of the coin echoed out and the three were instantly on alert.

"Go check it out." Ordered the one on the right of the container to the one standing to the left. The man moved around the corner and was about to call out to his colleagues only to be cut off as Spiderman dispatched him the same way he did the first crook. The two remaining men moved closer holding their guns tightly. One looked to the side and noticed that their colleagues were not at the back of the container.

"What th-!" He didn't get to finish as Spiderman dropped behind him and the other man and bashed their skulls together making them also fall into the black sleep.

_I wish for once there was someone that I could just hit with everything I got without killing them!_ Peter knew it was a bad thought but it just got so boring sometimes. When Spiderman reached the container door he found himself hearing something akin to an animal snoring, but that was ridiculous, what would Thorne want with an animal? And a large one by the sound of it. Peter used his enhanced strength and with a little strain he bent the metal doors open. As soon as they were open he knew that it _was_ snoring that he heard.

Peter then saw the body that the snore's were coming from. The snores stopped and two large grey eye's stared straight at him.

"Oh, crap." _Be careful what you wish for kids._

* * *

Batman crept silently on top of a container that gave him a clear view of Thorne and his dealings. In the last few minutes he had been taking photos of Thorne making some sort of transition. They all were on classical phylum so that no one could argue that they were altered digitally. Though unfortunately he had no evidence of anything clearly illegal. All he really had was Thorne's men handing over a case full of cash bills which was clearly suspicious but not something which would hold up in a Gotham courtroom.

"So where is he?" Thorne asked breathing out a thick trail of cigar smoke.

"In a container in the back. I should warn you though; he ain't the brightest but he is dangerous as hell so don't mess him about."

"Hey!" Thorne blew out another thick cloud of smoke into the man's face and jabbed a meaty finger into his chest. "I payed for him he's mine! What I do with him is my business!"

"Sure, just don't say I didn't warn you." The other man said backing away.

***CRASH***

"What the fuck was that!" Thorne demanded. Batman quickly pulled out his binoculars and looked in the direction of the noise. Though he didn't really need them to see a container fly through the air.

_Damn it Peter!_ Batman abandoned his point and headed towards the centre of the chaos. When Batman got there he wasn't too sure what to make of what was going on. He saw Spiderman fighting with what appeared to be a ten foot tall grey man in a torn up suit. The giant ripped a door off of a container and threw it at Spiderman. Spiderman dodged the killer door and fired multiple webbing shots into the giants face.

"Who's your new friend?" Batman asked jumping down to join his partner.

"Dunno, guy doesn't talk much besides saying that old Solomon Grundy rhyme. So I'm just calling him Grundy." The duo then dogged as the brute charged at them with a yell, letting the freak of nature collide with a group of containers leaving them crushed like tin cans.

"Am I right in assuming that he is what was in the container?"

"Yep and I think he's grumpy after his nap." The giant turned towards the monster dragging his knuckles along the ground.

"Solomun Grundy, born on a Monday-"

"Oh great! Here he goes again!"

"Christened on a Tuesday."

"What the fuck is going on!" Thorne yelled looking at the scene. Grundy clearly didn't like more people showing up and he demonstrated this by throwing a container at the new arrivals. Thank goodness he was a bad shot or he might of crushed Thorne and his men... Or would that have really have been such a bad thing? "What the hell! I own you, you freak! You work for me!"

"His name's Grundy and there's no need to be rude!"

"That's it!" Thorne yelled out. "Shoot 'em! Shoot all the freaks!" This was more than enough to make Spiderman and Batman dive for cover as Thorne's men opened fire on them.

"This guy sure needs to learn his manors!" Spiderman yelled over the gunfire.

"Here's the plan. You draw their fire and I'll get behind them and take them out." Batman instructed.

"Sure but I think our new buddy has other plans." Spiderman indicated towards Grundy who despite the bullets tearing through him seemed unfazed. Grundy began to move towards the crooks and was speeding up into a sprint with full intent of tearing them apart.

"We have to stop him before he kills those men!" Batman instructed. "I'll draw away the gunmen and take them out! If you use all your webbing on Grundy do you think it will hold him?"

"Maybe but defiantly not for long!"

"Then we better move quick!" Spiderman dived out of their hiding place firing webbing at the gun's completely covering them so that they could no longer fire (no point in wasting it all on Grundy if he was just going to be filled with lead). Then using what remained of his webbing he began to create a large cocoon of webbing that not only wrapped up Grundy but also linked him down to the ground.

As Spiderman acted so did Batman as he ran out of view and attacked the gangsters from the side throwing baterangs to rob some that still carried their guns. He then broke into a flurry of action colliding with his fists, elbows, knees and feat, rendering the men unconscious. Soon only Thorne remained as the fat man made a heavy run for freedom. Batman pulled out a bolo, throwing it at Thorne and tripping up the fat man. Thorne hit the floor with a nasty sounding thump.

"Let me go you costume weirdos!" The fat man protested. Batman simply walked up to him and kicked the fat man onto his back so that he could look him in the eye. "Wh-what!? What do you want from me!? Money!? You want money!? Let me go and I'll give you money or what ever you want! Drugs! Guns! Hookers! What ever you want, just let me go!" Batman grabbed him by his suit and lifted him clean off the ground with one hand and pulled close.

"You can't buy me Thorne. And you can't buy Gotham. Your time is up." Batman didn't shout but his voice held gravity as if he held utter and absolute power.

"You-You gonna kill me?" Throne had now lost his demanding tone and now felt nothing but fear for the white eyes that feared into his soul.

"No. But your going to Blackgate Penitentiary for a long time." Thorne seemed to regain some of his previous confidence even as the fear remained.

"What? In Gotham?! I won't even have to be there for as long as a hearing!"

"We shall see." Batman finished as he slammed his elbow into Thorne's chin rendering him unconscious. Batman looked at the unconscious man and couldn't help feel melancholic that this was the first time Thorne had probable even broken a sweat over someone hunting him. Thorne had been brought to court before but it never came to trial due to disappearing evidence and bribed officials. But this would be different and with scum like Thorne off the street maybe people on the streets would be little safer.

Spiderman looked straight at the grey giant and could help but feel curious as a scientist. How was this even possible. He just saw Grundy take about five clip's worth of bullets and yet he didn't seam bothered or even in pain.

"Solomon Grundy, born on a Monday..." A heavy deep voice drowned as if tired.

"Oh great back to this again." Spiderman moaned. Grundy had been muttering that same poem when they first clashed, he wondered what was up with that. He wondered, was Grundy... Nah! That would be stupid.

"Christened on a Tusday..."

"Hey know any other tunes?"

"Married on a..." Spiderman cocked an eyebrow under his mask at the pause.

"I think what your looking for is 'Wednesday'."

"Grundy squish bug..." Sperman paused.

"Huh?" Grundy looked up at Spiderman with his grey eyes and began to snarl.

"Grundy hate bug..." Spiderman could now see the webbing begin to strain under Grundy's body.

"Well that's a bit harsh. I mean we hardly know each other." Spiderman said taking a step back. "And it's not 'bug' it's 'spider' actually."

"Grundy squish bug..." Grundy spoke with more energy and volume. Spiderman held out his wrists and quickly checked that there was no left over webbing.

"Batman! Get over here! Now!" Spiderman called out with worry clear in his voice. Batman caught up with his partner Just in time to see the giant push the webbing to its limit.

"Grundy squish!" Grundy yelled as he broke free of his restraints.

"Oh, crap... I get the feeling that we are pushing copy rights here." Spiderman moaned. Grundy let out an angry roar as he charged.

"Move!" Batman commanded as they dived out on opposite sides to avoid the tanking monster.

"Don't let him get a hold of you. I think he's even stronger than I am!" Spiderman warned.

"What is it!?" Batman asked as he watched the creature turn to them to charge again.

"Given his cold pale body, slow thought process, invulnerability to death and freakish strength? I have an idea but you have to promise not to laugh!" Batman glared at him. "I think he's a zombie!"

"A what!" Batman half demanded. Batman then noticed Grundy charging again. "Never mind that! You go high, Ill go low!"

"Got it!" As Grundy got close they both went straight into action, moving to meet Grundy on opposite sides.

Spiderman jumped high shooting a kick at Grundy's head which was blocked with a large meaty forearm. Whilst Batman made a low jump and shot both his feet into Grundy's opposite knee. The combined force was able was able to knock Grundy over onto his side with a loud crash. Grundy made a loud angry sounding groan as he tried to get back up but was met by Spiderman sending a punch to his temple.

This jolted Grundy's head to the side but also made him swing out his arm knocking Spiderman twenty feat away making the hero land in a hard hitting role. Spiderman quickly jumped back to his feet and moved quickly to join his partner (happy again for his superior enhanced body). At this point Grundy was back up and was struggling to get his hands on Batman as he was using his cape as a useful distraction tactic.

Batmans tactic didn't last though as Grundy eventually got his hands on the cape and was able to through the caped crusader into a nearby container. Grundy would have followed up the assault but was intercepted by Spiderman. Realising he probable could't really cause the zombie pain he instead settled for being an annoyance, shooting quick jabs at Grundy's legs and body making it hard for him to move.

"Grungy will squish spider!" Grundy protested as Spiderman dodged his meaty paws.

"There you go! 'Spider' not 'bug'! Now was that so hard!?" Batman in the meantime had got back to his feat. Whilst he didn't have Spiderman's body he did have great armour and years or training to endure pain. He made a quick look at their surroundings and a check in his utility belt to make a plan of action. They were near the water, he had three flash and smoke bombs, five Batarangs and two exploding Batarangs. He could work with this.

"Spiderman! Force him closer to the water!" Batman called out.

_Easier said than done._Thought Spiderman. Spiderman then put all his strength into slamming both his open palms into Grundy's chest, successfully taking the Zombie off his feat and sending him half way to the water. Grundy pulled himself back up once again to his feat only to be met by both of spiderman feet in a flying kick to the face. Grundy was now inches from the water. This was all Batman needed as he threw a flash bomb into each of Grundy's eyes blinding the creature.

"Gaaahhh!" Grundy screamed out as he covered his eyes stumbling backwards and falling off the edge and into the deep water. Spiderman and Batman stood at the edge of the water looking down to see if Grundy would come back up.

"You think we killed him?" Spiderman asked in concern.

"You can't kill what's already dead." Batman spoke in his usual stoic voice.

"So this is a thing then? We are openly admitting that zombies are a real thing?"

"We need to leave. The police will be here soon." Peter smirked under his mask.

"So you admit zombies are real?" Batman ignored him as the ran towards the Batmobile.

* * *

James Gordon walked into his office not sure what to make of what he saw on the docks. Thorne and his men along with a group of other crooks who weren't Thorne's, all practically gift wrapped. His ex-partner Bullock had a hair brained idea that it was some kind of weird declaration of gang war. Though this was too weird. Maybe it was these vigilantes that he has been hearing about?

As if to answer this question he saw a role of digital film and what appeared to be a recording tape. He looked at them for the longest moment before hitting play on the recorder.

**"Let me go and I'll give you money or what ever you want!" **Gordon's eyes widened as he heard Thorne's voice come over the tape. **"Drugs! Guns!** **Hookers! What ever you want, just let me go!"** Gordon's jaw almost hit's the floor as he hears clear evidence of Thorne's criminal activities. They would finally have the bastard!

Gordon couldn't help but admire this. He made his way to his office window and looked at Gotham. It had been a hell on earth for years now and as a cop he couldn't help.

He looks back at the recorder. He knew that they were vigilantes and there for criminals, but for the briefest moment. He felt that maybe they were the one's that had the right idea.

* * *

After dropping off the evidence at the Commissioners office they returned to the batmobile and made their way back to Wayne manor.

"What do you think Thorne wanted Grundy for?" Spiderman asked.

"Hard to tell. Muscle, experimentation, or maybe he found a buyer for him. I might just have to drop by his cell and ask him." Batman replied in a tone that portrayed dark curiosity. The two then sat in silently for a few minutes as the batmobile sped through Gotham.

"How long do you think it will take till a new Smuggling lord try's to take over?" Batman thinks for a while. After all, crime never disappears, you can only reduce it and there is always someone willing to take over in a city of crime.

"I don't know. About five months at a minimum, it's hard to tell. Falcone might have one of his men take over but the same could be said about Maroni, and that could lead to a gang war. We're really just going to have to keep our ears to the ground and see what happens." They then sit in the longest silence. "You never answered me."

"About what?" Peter asked frowning.

"Is she cute?" Bruce asked as he smirked.

"Wha-?" Then it came back to him. "Are you serious?! Are you still going on about that!?" Peter yelled out in embarrassment and annoyance.

"Just concerned as your legal guardian." Bruce prodded. Bruce didn't have much of a playful side but Peter had a way of making it rise out of him.

"Look! I met her and talked to her for one lesson and we got on! I, am not, interested, in her! Got that!" Bruce didn't say anything as his smirk grew. Peter just huffed and crossed his arms in a strop. "I hate you."

* * *

**Well, that's that done.**

**I wanted to show in this chapter that Batman really does have a sense of humour and that it is only recent portrayals of him pulling the 'stroppy-emo'. I wasn't too sure what to do in this chapter and i just added Grundy because i felt it was rather lacking otherwise. I rather imagined grundy to look like the version from the older Justice League animation, I just has always seemed like a classic image to me.**

**Also I imagine Spiderman's suit to be the Superior Spiderman costume (wasn't sure if that was clear from the earlier description). And I think of the batman costume to be the one from Batman Arkham Origins (I love those games).**

**Also an introduction to batgirl. No this isn't love at first sight. That shit ain't real, i don't care if George Cluny believes in it, IT AIN'T REAL. Will she be a love interest? Dunno... well I do, but it isn't that important this early on.**

**I think next will be a villain will be one with a _little_ swagger in his _waddle._ (He he he, I'm so funny!) **


End file.
